View of Arona

Paris, 1788. Etching on light cream wove paper, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches (140 x 215 mm), full margins. Some minor toning at the top margin, as well as small losses at the lower right extreme sheet edge. The plate is printed on an oversize sheet of paper (15 1 /2 x 12 inches), and all condition points are well outside of the image area. The impression is finely printed and well inked. Likely printed 19th century. An impression of this work may be found in the permanent collection of the British Museum, object number 1989,0930.247.

The British Museum offers the following biographical information regarding the artist:

"Painter, draughtsman, etcher, curator and author. Worked as a diplomat in Naples (1779-85), where he learned how to engrave; travelled through Italy in 1788/89 and settled in Venice from where he was expelled in July 1793, prompting his return to Paris; in 1797/98 with Napoleon on the Egyptian campaign. In these years turned his amateur etchings into a business, and published two catalogues of his work (in 1793 and in 1803). Appointed in 1803 as (first) director of the Louvre, and put in charge of the Gobelins, Sèvres and the Monnaie; for this created a Baron. In charge of deciding the works to be removed from occupied Europe for the Louvre. Resigned in 1815 and spent his retirement in writing and organising the plates of his 'Monuments des arts du dessin', which was based on his own enormous private collection. Died in 1825 and his collection subsequently was sold in a series of auctions.